Tunxi Ancient Street lies in the center of
Tunxi district, where
the municipality of Huangshan is seated. Starting in the west
from Zhenhai Bridge, a stone arch bridge crossing the river
which was built in Ming dynasty, and ending up in the east
with
the tablet of memorial archways, it added up to 1273 meters
long. Being well preserved, there are shops row upon row,
with
buildings simple and elegant. It is a commercial street only
for
pedestrians, with the building style of Ming and Qing dynasties,
having the reputation of "The moving picture by the river
on
Pure Brightness".
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Set up in Song dynasty, Tunxi Ancient Street, became a distribution
center for goods and
materials to Huizhou during Ming and Qing dynasties. With
shops, it looks densely and
compactly. The shops, workshops and residences form an organic
whole, keeping the
characteristic and operation layout of ancient store such
as "front shop and back workshop"
or "front shop and back house". The building is only 3-stoery-high,
usually of tenon
structure, stones based, bricks laid, wall built like a horse's
head, small green tiles,
wood carvings of Hui style, ancient shop signs, red-lacquered
building with double-eaved
roofs. They are simple and elegant, magnificent and clean.
The pavement is 5 to 8 meters
wide, laid by red flagstones of large size. With clear grain
after a rain, it is as clean
as a picture. Walking on this street, there is no noise and
no disturbance, free and natural
far, far away. It seems to be back in the ancient times, triggering
off fantastic
reveries...
The shop name in the ancient street, has a lot of culture
meanings, embodying the speciality
of that the merchants in Huizhou are scholar-merchants. Among
which, there are shops with
more than a hundred years history, such as "Tongderen" Medicine
Shop, "Tonghe" Steelyard
Store, "Chengdexin" Sauce and Pickle Shop, the production
and display as well as its
operation are still with ancient customs by now.
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